Janneh Commission takes Ex-Gamtel MD to task

The
former managing director of Gamtel, Baboucarr Sanyang, yesterday was taken to
task by the Janneh Commission.

Mr.
Sanyang, who reappeared, continued his testimony on the management of the
national telecom gateway contracts.

Testifying
before the inquiry for the second time, he said Gamtel did not have the Cisco
platform which was requested by the National Assembly but the company has the
institution [GTMI] that trained people on Cisco platform.

According
to the former national telecom boss, Gamcel has the said platform which is
extended to Gamtel and the platform requested by the National Assembly was not
available at the time and that was the reason the contract was subcontracted.

Mr.
Sanyang confirmed signing the contract of MGI whose interest was to incorporate
Gamcel for networking system, and the officials were invited at Gamtel office
and had a presentation. However, he said he could not remember giving contracts
to MGI other than that of the National Assembly.

He
further testified that he recommended Balla Jassey of Mobicell Group for the
installation of Cisco network at State House which he said was not a contract
but outright recommendation. Upon looking at a letter authored by him for the
refurbishment of the Cisco network at State House, he said Gamtel funds were
not used in the installation of Cisco platform at State House.

However,
he disclosed that the funds used were from the maintenance budget of Gamtel, as
it was their responsibility to deploy and maintenance the telecom facility at
State House. He said he was told by Commander Sanneh that the sum of
$316,469.39 was offered to be paid partly by Gamtel; adding that he
discussed the contract for the
refurbishment of State House but that he did not have any document to show they
had a contract with State House.

However,
he said he had the approval from the office of the former president and not the
board of the company/Gamtel. He said MGI contract with State House was a
unilateral responsibility of Gamtel to do the maintenance of the telecom system
at State House.

Mr.
Sanyang revealed that he made it clear to the office of the former president
that they could not do the contract beyond their capability; adding that the
service rendered to State House was free and they were replacing the telecom
system.

Mrs.
Bensouda put it to him that the maintenance of the telecom system at State
House cost $632,938 out of which Gamtel only paid $316,469.39 on behalf of
State House.

At
this juncture, Sanyang disclosed to the commission that the money spent on the
maintenance of the telecom system at State House would be reimbursed. However,
he said they did not receive any reimbursement from the office of the former
president.

He
added that it was their social corporate responsibility to do the service at
State House unlike that of the National Assembly, further stating that the said
contract was done when Gamtel was receiving funds from the gateway contract
unlike before when the funds were diverted to the bank.

According
to him, the social corporate responsibility was something they inherited. He
said Mobicell was qualified to get the contract at State House because they had
a relationship with Cisco who linked them to Mobicell.

On
MGI, he said he knew the company from 2011-2012, adding that this was the
company that had an interest to cooperate with Gamtel for network operations
and MGI was introduced to him by Mr. Balla Jassey.

However,
he said he invited them to Gamtel to do a presentation for them but could not
remember whether he gave MGI the contract. It was put to him by counsel that he
recommended Mr. Balla Jassey for the contract which was partly funded by Gamtel
which he denied.

He
said Gamtel-gateway was handled by the office of the former president, further
stating that if it was the time the traffic was diverted, they would not have
been able to pay for the contract at State House.

A
letter from Mr. Jassey of Mobicell requesting for payments of the said amount
was shown to him, which he confirmed.

On
MGI Switzerland contract, he said he signed the management agreement on behalf
of the government; adding that he did not have the agreement between MGI and
government which was later cancelled. However, commission’s counsel, Amie
Bensouda, asked him to find out and make it available to the commission.

According
to him, he perused the agreement of the contract to make sure that the interest
of the company was served, he, however, denied recommending the contract which
was signed at the office of the former president.

Mr.
Sanyang informed the commissioners that he did not play any role in the
termination of Tell contract for the management of the gateway but he was
instructed from the office of the former president through a letter to take the
gateway from Tell International.

He
added that his termination letter was given to him by the former permanent
secretary at the Personal Management Office, Dawda Fadera, and shortly after
that, he was apprehended and escorted to his office by intelligence officers
and was asked to hand over to his deputy with immediate effect. He said he was
later taken to the NIA for questioning on the proceeds from the gateway and
subsequently charged with Economic Crime, remanded but later the charges were
dropped; adding that he was reinstated in 2014.

“I
never introduced MGI to General Saul Badjie and I have no knowledge whether the
former president requested money from MGI,” he told the commission.

Further
quizzing the former telecom boss, Mrs. Bensouda put it to him that Gamtel did
not have the capacity the National Assembly required to which he responded in
the affirmative. He added that Gamtel did not have qualified engineers to be
able to do the service for the National Assembly.

Mr.
Sanyang explained that he escorted MGI representative to Kanilai to enable him
submit a letter of intent to the former Secretary General Njogu Bah, and his
mission with MGI ended when the group met Njogu Bah. He said Gamtel had no
agreement signed with MGI.

According
to him, when he sought approval from the office of the former president to have
partners for the management of the gateway hence Gamtel was not in a position
to do it alone, he said MGI would undertake commitment to temporally take over
the management of the gateway from Tell International.

He
further disclosed that the team from Gamtel worked with MGI for the
installation of Gamtel Switchboards; adding that he was not privy to the
incentive requested by the former president to the tune of $10,000,000 to award
the contract to MGI.

The
agreement with MGI was handed over to him at the office of the former president
to sign, which was a directive from the office of the former president but he
could not decline signing the contract as requested by the former president, he
testified.

He
said he did not know whether MGI had a license to operate and Gamtel did not have
direct income from MGI.

Responding
to Commissioner Bai Mass Saine that government was not supportive to Gamtel but
took away revenue from the institution, he said this happened in his absence
and upon his return, he was briefed by the then acting MD, Mr. Suso, that the
office of the former president wrote requesting for the gateway proceeds from
them.

He
said he did not ignore the board of Gamtel because the possibility of losing
revenue and the impact was raised with the board and he also suffered to defend
the interest of Gamtel.

Earlier
testifying, Dodou C.M. Kebbeh, clerk of the National Assembly, reappeared in
connection to the ratification of the Republic of China loan amounting to
$35,000,000.

Mrs.
Besouda reminded him that he was asked to produce the loan agreement between
The Gambia and The Republic of China but Kebbeh responded that he went through
all the records but could not find the said agreement in their files ranging
from 1997 up to date; adding that he was not the clerk then but Mr. B.S. Njie.

However,
he was asked to make a further search for the production of this document.